Guitars

[Bellend Sebastian]

I've had my Strat back for a couple of weeks and it's now had the best part of two hundred quid spent on it, full set up, frets redressed etc etc.

 

It plays beautifully, super quick (and I am not quick) but bloody hell, the E and A strings still buzz like anything.

 

I was starting to accept it as a quirk of the thing and maybe to do with my playing style, but playing it more often plugged in, the buzz is being proper picked up by my amp, and if I'm using a capo those strings are buzzing come what may, even when played open.

 

Having done some more reading up on it I've come to the conclusion that the action's just too low. The chap that did the work admitted he likes a really low action, but whilst I like how it plays it's not really what I'm used to and I'll gladly bring it up a bit if it cuts out that darn buzzing

[RoboFox]

On 12/05/2022 at 21:54, Bellend Sebastian said:

I've had my Strat back for a couple of weeks and it's now had the best part of two hundred quid spent on it, full set up, frets redressed etc etc.

 

It plays beautifully, super quick (and I am not quick) but bloody hell, the E and A strings still buzz like anything.

 

I was starting to accept it as a quirk of the thing and maybe to do with my playing style, but playing it more often plugged in, the buzz is being proper picked up by my amp, and if I'm using a capo those strings are buzzing come what may, even when played open.

 

Having done some more reading up on it I've come to the conclusion that the action's just too low. The chap that did the work admitted he likes a really low action, but whilst I like how it plays it's not really what I'm used to and I'll gladly bring it up a bit if it cuts out that darn buzzing

The guy doing the set up should've addressed the fret buzz IMO. Where is the buzz coming from? If it's towards the base of the neck then yes, your action could be too low and should be raised at the bridge saddles. 

 

If it's toward the head then the nut slots could be too deep or it's been filed too low in general. 

 

The neck tension could also be incorrectly set. 

 

I'd take it back to him mate.

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, RoboFox said:

The guy doing the set up should've addressed the fret buzz IMO. Where is the buzz coming from? If it's towards the base of the neck then yes, your action could be too low and should be raised at the bridge saddles. 

 

If it's toward the head then the nut slots could be too deep or it's been filed too low in general. 

 

The neck tension could also be incorrectly set. 

 

I'd take it back to him mate.

I will be doing, I reckon.

 

I think eliminating it completely is unrealistic; my Tele, which a Fender engineer once described as being set up "perfectly" - more by luck than judgement, I might add - does it a bit, and Strat owners on the web who have married zero buzz with a super low action seem to be in the minority.

 

The frets are good, he was confident that the neck tension was perhaps not quite perfect (the truss rod is maxed out or close to it) is not the issue but he did say that as far as he was concerned Strats should have a low action, when actually there seem to be a lot of owners that say the opposite.

 

Frustratingly, I'm struggling to work out where the buzz is coming from, despite it being really obvious

 

[RoboFox]

1 hour ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I will be doing, I reckon.

 

I think eliminating it completely is unrealistic; my Tele, which a Fender engineer once described as being set up "perfectly" - more by luck than judgement, I might add - does it a bit, and Strat owners on the web who have married zero buzz with a super low action seem to be in the minority.

 

The frets are good, he was confident that the neck tension was perhaps not quite perfect (the truss rod is maxed out or close to it) is not the issue but he did say that as far as he was concerned Strats should have a low action, when actually there seem to be a lot of owners that say the opposite.

 

Frustratingly, I'm struggling to work out where the buzz is coming from, despite it being really obvious

 

It's annoying because there's a load of different variables that could be causing it.

 

I much prefer a lower action on all of my guitars, but it's such a faff trying to balance it out so that it doesn't cause any issues. 

 

Good luck getting it sorted! 

[FerrisBueller]

On 22/04/2022 at 18:56, RoboFox said:

Alright, here it is. The finished build. 

 

A useless, bow-necked, broken 90s Squier restored to full glory and sits proudly alongside the others. Really pumped about how it's come out TBH. Looks great too. I love the combo of gold, black and sunburst with vintage pickup / knob covers. 

 

All gold hardware with Hipshot locking staggered tuners, new bridge and tremolo, Ironstone pickups, a full electronics switch out and the addition of a Gilmour mod and bridge blend for maximum tonal range (3-way switch visible in 2nd pic) 

 

 

 

 

Unrelated but is that SG a Gibson or Epiphone? I had the Epiphone a few years back and sold it for far too cheap, going for double what I sold it for now and I loved that frigging guitar.

[RoboFox]

On 21/05/2022 at 09:28, FerrisBueller said:

Unrelated but is that SG a Gibson or Epiphone? I had the Epiphone a few years back and sold it for far too cheap, going for double what I sold it for now and I loved that frigging guitar.

Epiphone G-400 Custom. Bought it from what was Academy of Sound back in about 2002 for something like £250. It was my second ever guitar and I only wanted it because it had 3 humbuckers and I thought more pickups made the guitar better. 

 

Only recently had a renewed appreciation for it TBH having spent most of the last couple of years in its hard case. Started wrapping the strings around the bridge and having an proper understanding of how the pickup wiring works. 
 

Sounds great, man. I’ll never part with it.

 

Edited 22 May 2022 by RoboFox

[FerrisBueller]

49 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

Epiphone G-400 Custom. Bought it from what was Academy of Sound back in about 2002 for something like £250. It was my second ever guitar and I only wanted it because it had 3 humbuckers and I thought more pickups made the guitar better. 

 

Only recently had a renewed appreciation for it TBH having spent most of the last couple of years in it’s hard case. Started wrapping the strings around the bridge and having an proper understanding of how the pickup wiring works. 
 

Sounds great, man. I’ll never part with it.

 

Yep, that’s the one I had! Bought it for about £200 around 2014. Sold it for around the same to fund a strat. Absolutely loved that guitar, it played amazing and sounded so good, I’m annoyingly back in the market for an SG and would love one of these again. Unfortunately not many knocking around in Copenhagen at the moment.

[Bellend Sebastian]

18 minutes ago, FerrisBueller said:

Yep, that’s the one I had! Bought it for about £200 around 2014. Sold it for around the same to fund a strat. Absolutely loved that guitar, it played amazing and sounded so good, I’m annoyingly back in the market for an SG and would love one of these again. Unfortunately not many knocking around in Copenhagen at the moment.

I know someone with an SG in an interesting sort of lime green colour. It's from 1976 and worth over five grand, I didn't dare even hold it when I was offered a go

[FerrisBueller]

1 hour ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I know someone with an SG in an interesting sort of lime green colour. It's from 1976 and worth over five grand, I didn't dare even hold it when I was offered a go

The same fear I get when someone asks if I want to hold their baby 

[Bellend Sebastian]

29 minutes ago, FerrisBueller said:

The same fear I get when someone asks if I want to hold their baby 

It wasn't exactly in mint condition either!

[RoboFox]

2 hours ago, FerrisBueller said:

Yep, that’s the one I had! Bought it for about £200 around 2014. Sold it for around the same to fund a strat. Absolutely loved that guitar, it played amazing and sounded so good, I’m annoyingly back in the market for an SG and would love one of these again. Unfortunately not many knocking around in Copenhagen at the moment.

The only downsides IMO is the neck dive and middle pick up. It’s quite imbalanced and can sound muddy if not dialled back.

 

Always found it curious that it carries the “Les Paul” name despite being an SG. It’s a resurrection of the 1961 original and Les Paul had his name removed from them not long after.

[Bellend Sebastian]

Strat update: lent it to my mate who's a former gigging musician and is into recording at home and all that stuff, as I thought he would be a good person to make a judgement on whether anything should be done.

 

I thought he'd just have a quick go on it, but he apparently spent ages playing it unplugged, plugged in, recording it etc etc.

 

He concluded that there was only noticeable buzz on the low E string and that wasn't that bad. It had new strings in on it, and he wondered if that was part of the issue, and now I've got it back and the strings have been played in a bit, it does seem to be a bit less buzzy.

 

The main thing he said, and this was the sort of perspective I was hoping for, was that it in his view it plays amazingly. I had a go on it last night and he's right, I seem to be able to play 20% faster on it. The more I played, the more I enjoyed it and the less I was thinking about buzzing or anything that might be amiss.

 

I'm going to see how it goes

[Blarmy]

Any Blues Junior owners here? I have a special edition IV with a C-Rex speaker and jeez, I just can’t dial it in. The fundamental tone is good but I cannot get a bright sound without it sounding harsh when I play in the upper registers. I had a Twin years ago and didn’t have these issues with that. I also have some Waza Air headphones so don’t think it’s the guitar…

[Flamey]

23 hours ago, Blarmy said:

Any Blues Junior owners here? I have a special edition IV with a C-Rex speaker and jeez, I just can’t dial it in. The fundamental tone is good but I cannot get a bright sound without it sounding harsh when I play in the upper registers. I had a Twin years ago and didn’t have these issues with that. I also have some Waza Air headphones so don’t think it’s the guitar…

There is an article on TDPRI about a bj3 crex ...not sure if posting links is permitted. Someone comments how to dial it in, I've never owned one myself. 

[Blarmy]

12 minutes ago, Flamey said:

There is an article on TDPRI about a bj3 crex ...not sure if posting links is permitted. Someone comments how to dial it in, I've never owned one myself. 

Thanks, will check it out.

[Flamey]

Paul Mccartney's guitarist was a bit talented! 🥺

[RoboFox]

There's few things in life more painful than dinging a guitar.

 

Managed to keep my 20 year old Epiphone largely damage-free until earlier and an incident involving a cat toy becoming tangled around my feet and flinging across the room in an event I couldn't replicate if I tried. There's now a 5mm dent right on the front.

 

It's horrible when its your mistake, but somehow even worse when it's a 1/1000 freak accident. 

 

Edited 29 June 2022 by RoboFox

[Bellend Sebastian]

21 hours ago, RoboFox said:

There's few things in life more painful than dinging a guitar.

 

Managed to keep my 20 year old Epiphone largely damage-free until earlier and an incident involving a cat toy becoming tangled around my feet and flinging across the room in an event I couldn't replicate if I tried. There's now a 5mm dent right on the front.

 

It's horrible when its your mistake, but somehow even worse when it's a 1/1000 freak accident. 

 

I feel this pain. It's the same with any big purchase and it's very difficult not to get down about it.

 

I've got two telecasters, one bought second hand that was obviously gigged pretty heavily and has taken some fairly hefty whacks which just don't register and another I bought brand new that has a tiny, tiny chip in the headstock that was my fault and irritates me every time it comes out the case

[RoboFox]

1 hour ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I feel this pain. It's the same with any big purchase and it's very difficult not to get down about it.

 

I've got two telecasters, one bought second hand that was obviously gigged pretty heavily and has taken some fairly hefty whacks which just don't register and another I bought brand new that has a tiny, tiny chip in the headstock that was my fault and irritates me every time it comes out the case

Yeah it's part of owning any guitar I suppose.

 

In a few months I won't care about it but it's just annoying after owning the thing for two decades it gets damaged not because I'm living out my rockstar fantasies, but because my cat likes to leave his toys all over the house. 

[Pliskin]

On 29/06/2022 at 10:46, RoboFox said:

There's few things in life more painful than dinging a guitar.

 

Managed to keep my 20 year old Epiphone largely damage-free until earlier and an incident involving a cat toy becoming tangled around my feet and flinging across the room in an event I couldn't replicate if I tried. There's now a 5mm dent right on the front.

 

It's horrible when its your mistake, but somehow even worse when it's a 1/1000 freak accident. 

 

I used to think that, my Strat is still my pride and joy, and I can remember the first time I dinged it and I was devastated. But, several dings later It actually looks pretty cool and a bit like a relic. 

[WigstonWanderer]

Just bought a Fender Player Plus Stratocaster HSS Belair Blue. Love it.

 

I might have absolutely zero talent, and precious little skill, but I will have decent equipment! 

Edited 4 July 2022 by WigstonWanderer

[Bellend Sebastian]

4 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said:

Just bought a Fender Player Plus Stratocaster HSS Belair Blue. Love it.

 

I might have absolutely zero talent, and precious little skill, but I will have decent equipment! 

That's an excitingly unusual look, not seen that before.

 

Get playing!

[WigstonWanderer]

3 hours ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

That's an excitingly unusual look, not seen that before.

 

Get playing!

Well I’m practicing every day for an hour or more (in a pretty unstructured way) and have been for 5 months. Still crap, but I am seeing very gradual improvement, and things that seemed very difficult early on certainly seem a bit easier now so there’s definitely been a little progress. A bit hindered by minor arthritis at the base of my thumbs, as well as the aforesaid lack of natural talent. Really enjoying my new hobby though.

 

I’ve gone from a very small repertoire of songs I can’t play very well to a much larger repertoire of songs I can’t play very well. Still just doing chords really but starting to look at other stuff.

Edited 5 July 2022 by WigstonWanderer

[Bellend Sebastian]

6 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said:

Well I’m practicing every day for an hour or more (in a pretty unstructured way) and have been for 5 months. Still crap, but I am seeing very gradual improvement, and things that seemed very difficult early on certainly seem a bit easier now so there’s definitely been a little progress. A bit hindered by minor arthritis at the base of my thumbs, as well as the aforesaid lack of natural talent. Really enjoying my new hobby though.

 

I’ve gone from a very small repertoire of songs I can’t play very well to a much larger repertoire of songs I can’t play very well. Still just doing chords really but starting to look at other stuff.

If you keep that up I'm sure you'll see tons of progress in the months ahead.

 

You may have noticed this already, but improvement doesn't always come smoothly, it can be more in fits and starts and it's important not to get frustrated when things seem to 'plateau'. I've had one of my best years in terms of improving my playing more than 25 years after starting

[RoboFox]

17 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said:

Just bought a Fender Player Plus Stratocaster HSS Belair Blue. Love it.

 

I might have absolutely zero talent, and precious little skill, but I will have decent equipment! 

Yeah, that's a nice guitar. Really unusual to see those vintage-style covered humbuckers alongside single-coils. 

 

I've always been such a big fan of HSS strats.

 

1 hour ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

If you keep that up I'm sure you'll see tons of progress in the months ahead.

 

You may have noticed this already, but improvement doesn't always come smoothly, it can be more in fits and starts and it's important not to get frustrated when things seem to 'plateau'. I've had one of my best years in terms of improving my playing more than 25 years after starting

I've big time flatlined recently. 

 

Steady improvement since I picked up the guitar again during the first lockdown after 10 years barely touching the guitar. I think I'm better than I was originally, but I've definitely plateaued and it's putting me off. I still play regularly but I'm not learning anything new at all... Just playing the same things I'm comfortable with. 

 

Need to break through.